This story is an unfortunate piece of Neo-Con propaganda and a tired reiteration of Bernard Lewis' Clash of Civilizations theory. The hysterical alarmism in which the immediate future is couched -- World War IV, Islamofascism, Totalitarian disease, Nuclear War -- is used as an excuse to exhort the United States to attack Iran. Podhoretz, like most of the Neo-Cons, is Jewish and he sees the nuclear program in Iran as a threat to Israel's nuclear hegemony in the Middle East. He unsuccessfully tries to conflate U.S. and Israeli interests and gives this alamrist screed a psudo-historical context by referencing 1938 Germany, Munich, appeasement, Nazism, etc. He then likens Ahmadinejad to Hitler, and uses the widely quoted mis-translation of "wiping Israel off the map." I am sure that Podheretz knows perfectly well that Ahmadinejade was quoting the Ayatollah Khomeini who said that "the Zionist government of Israel would one day cease to exist," and it would be brought down by it's own supporters. Podhoretz sadly shakes his head at the apathy and moral laxity of Europe and the rest of the world, saying: "Much of the world has greeted Ahmadinejad’s promise to wipe Israel off the map with something close to insouciance. " More likely, the rest of the world saw a correct translation and put it into perspective. But when writing propaganda, as Norman Podhoretz well knows, the truth is a sad casualty of the desire to inflame. As his title would suggest, that is certainly the purpose of "The Case for Bombing Iran." However, the question we Americans must always ask ourselves when reading something as important as an exhortation to war. Is this in the best interests of the United States?